Brad Keselowski Wins First Race of the Playoffs

By The Associated Press

Sept. 15, 2014

With a daring drive through the middle, Brad Keselowski won the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship on Sunday.

Keselowski, who opened the Chase as the top seed, executed a three-wide pass of Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. The victory automatically advanced Keselowski, a Team Penske driver, into the second round of the 10-race Chase, which will eliminate four drivers every third race under Nascar’s new format.

As Larson and Harvick staged a hold-your-breath, side-by-side race for the lead after a restart with 19 laps remaining, Keselowski charged through the middle to grab control of the race. He easily pulled away from the field, while Harvick and Larson had their hands full trying to hold off Jeff Gordon. "I saw Kyle and Kevin racing each other really hard; they were aggressively side drafting, and I was waiting for an opportunity to strike and it came," Keselowski said. "The car stuck and everything came together."

Gordon, trying this year to win his fifth Nascar championship, wound up second, and Larson, a rookie, was third. Joey Logano was fourth, and Harvick faded to fifth.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D8 of the New York edition with the headline: Keselowski Wins First Race of the Playoffs. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe